Christian Reaction to Hindutva:

It was V.D.Savarkar who used the word ‘Hindutva’. It is a complex concept. It means ‘nationalist’ culture–race, Hindu faith, geographical and cultural elements. Hindutva requires: a)birth and growth in Indian territory; b)leonging to the Indian race or possessing Hindu blood; c)appreciation of and practice of all the customs and traditions of Hindu Sanskriti, and acceptance of India alone as one’s fatherland (pitribhu) and holy land (punyabhu), and its heroes as persons of veneration (virpurush), as well as sanskrit as the common language’ d)allegiance to one of the religions traditions that have emerged from india, such as Hindusim or Buddhism, jainism and Sikhism as offshoots of Hinduism (cf.V.D.Savarkar, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?, S.P.Gokhale, Pune, 1947, pp.73, n92, 81-82). Consequnetly, Muslims, Christians and some others are excluded from the Hindu fold, because a)Hindu blood does not flow in their veins; b)they follow different faiths and cults; c)they consider places like Mecca and Jerusalem as holy cities; and d)their cultural practices and lanaguiages (like Urdu and English) do not belong to Hindu Sanskriti.

This ideology will have several political consequences: Hindus falling within Hindutva must unite and fight their enemies: the non-Hindus. The non-Hindus have to be converted to Hindusim by abandoning their faith and cultural practices. They must also glorify the Hindu race and culture. If they do not do so, “they could stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatmnet, not even citizen’s rights”, as Golwalkar has put it (We Our nationhood defined, Bharat Prakashan, Nagpur, 1939, p.62).